Mashing buttons since 1984
Quite possibly the greatest shooter of all time is being released tomorrow on Xbox Live for 800 points. I’m seriously considering taking my first ever personal day just for a video game. It is the only game I have played consistently for almost three years.
This game is not for the faint of heart. The person in the video above has played it a lot more than I have, a lot more.
I know I’m a little early, but I don’t have much time. I’ll be disconnected the next two days attending a conference.
Saving other items for next week, I present you with only one item for this post, The Force Unleashed. There is no doubt that I will get this game. The big question is for what system?
All of them?
I haven’t done this for a while, but that doesn’t mean there are a bunch of games on my radar. (Gamedar, if you will) The one highlighted this week is Bangai-O Spirits. I was blissfully unaware of anything about this title until I read Tim Rogers’ review over at Action Button. A good read, if you can get past the weird sex metaphors.
After reading such phrases as “Bangai-oh Spirits is “Brain Training” for God” and “Bangai-O Spirits is a puzzle game, a shooting game, a fighting game, an MMORPG. It is Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter III at the same time…” (you get the idea.) I was intrigued. So I did a little research:
1UP has a preview and you can see a bunch of videos, including some gameplay videos over at Game Trailers. I can’t tell if this game is nothing but a cluster of unplayable, uncontrollable madness or pure gaming heaven. I mean, you can use a baseball bat to deflect missiles! Who does that? Who thinks of that? It’s insane.
Bullets bouncing of walls ballistically and barreling into barricades, blowing them away? Sold!
Seriously, what other shoot-em-up has baseball bats?!
It’s Monday and it’s time to get mad. Well, not really. It’s great to be hydrated and back in the land of the living. wash your hands and don’t eat poop.
First, the University of Michigan has created the COM-BAT. What is it? It’s a six inch robotic spy plane shapes like a, well, you know, a bat. Pics and coolness.
I like LEGOs. I like Assassin’s Creed. Chocolate and peanut butter. Take a leap of faith.
Please try the demo to Trials 2. I bet you’ll buy the game. If anything, watch the video. It’s…neat. Physics.
Spirit, the Mars Rover left to die before it’s time? I don’t think many will disagree that these rovers were probably some of the greatest engineering ever done by and for NASA. Godspeed, Spirit.
Finally, a car maker does something cool for the gamer crowd. The Pontiac G8 meets Spy Hunter. I love the Peter Gunn theme.
It’s the weekend and it’s time to get geared up for a great weekend of gaming! It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these so I’ve got some catching up to do. I know Nat hasn’t been feeling well, so I’ll let him fill us in on what he’s been playing whenever he feels like it.
As for me, I’ve been pretty busy. After reading Nat’s (and everyone else’s) attempts to actually finish a few games, I took it to heart and placed a self-imposed rule that I had to finish something, anything, before I picked up a new game. I really wanted to get Burnout Paradise, so I gave it the college try and decided to wrap up some loose ends.
Even though you never really “finish” Pokemon Diamond, per se, there is an end to the game, which after consulting GameFAQs once or twice, I finally made it to. I found and finally finished off the last bad guys. It was fairly easy and quite anticlimatic. But it is the first Pokemon game I’ve “finished” so there’s that. I think my Pokedex was more than half full which flies in the face of the mantra of collect them all, but I’m only human. I’m not waiting around for a convenient Friday just to catch a pocket monster.
I also managed to finish the single player campaign in Halo 3 (On Heroic, mind you). I hated the sphincter level, but the last level was most enjoyable. A true homage to the Halo series. The ending was infinity times better than Halo 2’s ending.
Yes it was.
But now I’m done with those two games. Sure, I still play Halo 3 multiplayer like it’s my job, but I doubt I’ll be doing the single player much more except to find the skulls. Maybe I’ll do co-op with someone to get the achievements, but that’s about it.
So here’s what I’m playing:
Burnout Paradise: I’m a few months behind the curve on this one, but I am loving Burnout Paradise. Burnout’s trademark speed and pedal-to-the-metal is still there, with the added open world. I haven’t stopped grinning since I started playing this one. I haven’t played with anyone online yet, but I can definitely see that being a blast. I miss crash mode but showtime mode is a decent replacement.
Super Mario Galaxy and NSMB: Again, I’m a few months behind the curve with SMG, but I can’t get enough of this. A little while ago, my 3 year-old started watching me play NSMB on the DS and wanted to try it. He isn’t bad (for a 3 y/o) and he really likes the Mario character. My daughter loves Princess Peach (duh) so our new past time is to play Super Mario Galaxy. This is another one of those games that are just plain fun. The platforming has been taken to another level with the galaxy concept. I love it. Being able to have my daughter join in the fun with the other Wii-mote is perfect. I’ve gathered 22 stars so far and I don’t want to stop any time soon.
I’ve also been playing a handful of web-based flash games (a few I’m too ashamed to admit to playing, others I’m saving for future blog posts) all in the name of “research”. And of course I can’t go to bed until I get in a game of Spider Solitaire and Tetris.
This weekend I’ll be playing Burnout and SMG, and hopefully getting back to my Mass Effect save. Should be a busy weekend.
NAT: I’ve been playing the “stay hydrated and gain my weight back” game (PSA: wash your hands). Actually, two nights ago, I finally took the cellophane off my copy of Mass Effect. My initial impression is that it’s cinematic. Even though we purchased Brawl, we must be the only home in America that’s just not sucked in by it. We’ve played it a total of two nights. My son has been keeping me busy with a few racing games: Cars, Cars:Maternational, Forza 2, and a couple of the Burnouts. However, mostly, I’ve been playing Bully: Scholarship Edition. It’s been a hoot. Last night, I popped Geometry Wars Galaxies into the Wii and now I have an itch to play a lot of that. This may seem like a lot of titles, but for me, it’s only been 5-15 minutes at a time.
What are you playing?
The first videogame I ever played was Space Invaders. It was simplistic and challenging. Well, now it looks like Space Invaders has met Lumines and you can color me intrigued. It’s out now in Japan an will be available stateside in June for $20 for the PSP and DS.
Giant Bomb mentioned it first. Head on over there for more info and a more detailed write up.
I never, ever thought I would be embarrassed to get an achievement.
It was just one dude. Only one.
There is no way this is actual gameplay footage. A new game just popped up on my radar.
Apple versus Microsoft. Support versus frustration. Two enter, one leaves.
In light of all I’ve gone through and with giving up (actually, changing perspective) on “The List,” it’s now time for me to get rid of all the games I no longer want or need. What does that mean for you, oh, inquisitive reader? Simply put, you get first dibs.
Here’s how it works. I’m going to list all the game I want to get rid of. (All of them come in their cases). I could just take them in to Gamestop, but they are idiots (There’s a guy in our local store that deserves a plethora of posts. I feel sorry for uninformed customers.) and they would give me a pittance for the trade-in anyway. I will sell the game to you at half the price Gamestop sells it used (look it up on their site and email me the link). That way, you get a game cheaper than used list and I make more off it. Make sense? Let’s eliminate the used store middleman and save on their fees.
Just email me (agentgray at gmail) what you want and we can work all the other stuff. I’ll probably use Paypal and ship the mail via USPS (US or Canada) Here’s the games (with commentary):
Gamecube:
Xbox
Nintendo DS
Xbox 360
Nintendo Wii
There you go. There are some more titles I may add to this, but I am very close to completing them. Plus, I have some PC titles, but I need to make sure license keys and stuff are OK.